Somewhere
by Hakurei Ryuu
Summary: When the final battle leaves Kagome trapped on the other side of the Well, how far will Inuyasha go to find his beloved again? InuKag. COMPLETE EXCEPT FOR EPILOGUE, WHICH HAS BEEN ABANDONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.
1. The Fight

**Wow. This is just...wow. I am **_**soooo**_** proud of this little fic, I think it deserves its own title. So I gave it its own story, instead of lumping it with my other songfics. **

**Also, welcome to the first, and probably only songfic with **_**chapters!**_** I couldn't believe it either, but that's the way it came. And the lyrics--all of the same song (**_**Somewhere**_**, by Within Temptation)--continue on all but the last two chapters. And yes, I do have them all written out...except for the end bit. So updates will probably be every few days...unless I forget or something...you know how it is. -grins-**

**Anyway, enjoy the greatest thing I've ever written...so far.**

_...The Fight..._

The final battle had taken them back to Musashi's Domain, and they were nearing the Bone-Eater's Well. Naraku's trail of carnage had flattened the nearby village, and Shippo had stayed behind with Kaede to help care for the injured. Inuyasha was slashing at Naraku's yoketsu with surprising patience, slowly wearing him down. From Kirara's back, Sango hurled circles around him with her newly repaired Hiraikotsu, sucking up and negating his jyaki so Miroku could use his Kazaana freely to suck up spare body parts to make doubly sure Naraku couldn't regenerate. Kagome was down to her last arrow, the previous four having done some serious damage of their own.

They had finally cornered him.

They had lured him out by spreading rumors that Inuyasha was severely injured after a recent battle. They had origionally hoped to capture Byakuya and force him to lead them to Naraku's hideout, but Naraku had come himself, hoping to settle things once and for all.

A howl could be heard in the distance, and Inuyasha smiled savagly to himslef as the other half of their trap closed in on their foe. He could hear Kagome breathing heavily as she ran from tree to tree, waiting for the perfect moment to loose her final arrow. There was a flash of color as Kirara lept past, passengers in tow. The air was getting more and more poisonous as shouki poured from the numerous wounds induced by some sixty feral wolves. And was that _Sesshomaru's_ scent coming this way?

There was a crash of splintering wood and a gasp, and suddenly Kagome was on the ground, having just barely dodged a tentacle that was about to impale her.

That was enough. Inuyasha abandoned his attacks and pulled Kagome up out of harm's way. He barely heard her protestations as he dropped her uncerimoneously down the well, and was flung aside as Naraku, practly torn to shreds, fell forward on top of the Well opening. With her Sight, Kagome saw a powerful shield being formed with the last of the Jewel's power. She saw Naraku wrap a slimy tentacle around Inuyasha, about to swallow him up. She saw that he wasn't able to escape. And then she saw the Jewel itself.

Time seemed to slow down. Even Kagome's fall down the enchanted Well seemed to take hours. With agonizing slowness, she drew the enormous white bow that was her's, body and soul, and fired her last arrow in freefall. Then all there was was the dark blue magic of the Well, something even her powers could not stop.

There was an incredible, blinding flash of pale blue light that slowly, ever so slowly, turned laverner, then pink as the Shikon no Tama _erupted_ from Naraku's body. Inuyasha struggled free and caught the Jewel by the slim white arrow protruding from its side. Staring at it, he looked at the remnants of the ancient Well, crushed under Naraku's tattered remains.

Did Kagome make it through?

Suddenly, there was a flash of dark light, and a pulling force that they all recognized very well: Tenseiga's meidou. It appeared just above Naraku's head and crashed down on him with the force of a thousand nuclear weapons. Sesshomaru stood calmly behind the destructive force, and everyone else had the sense to get clear as Naraku was sucked into the very place he was named after. In mere moments he was gone, and the purified and nearly completed Shikon no Tama sat innocently in Inuyasha's hands.

**ooOooOooOoo**

It was dark. Kagome found herself sitting at the bottom of the Well. But it wasn't Naraku's disgusting bulk that shadowed the daylight, but the man-made shed in her own backyard. She was home...

...Which was the absolute_ last _place she wanted to be at the moment! "Inuyasha...?" she whispered. "Where are you? _Inuyasha!!_"

_Lost in the darkness  
Hoping for a sign  
Instead there is only silence  
Can't you hear my screams?_

How was he not there? He was always supposed to be there! What happened to him? Where was he?!

_Okay, _she thought, _Get a hold of yourself, Kagome. He's fine, I'm sure of it. Naraku didn't kill him in that blast, there's no possible way. Except for the fact that he was probably blinded by the flash of light that _I_ caused, and right when he about to be absorbed oh gods, what have I done?_

In her mind, it was the only possible explanation. If it had gone any other way, Inuyasha would be here to make sure she got through the well safely. Why wasn't he here?_ Where was he?!_

_Never stop hoping  
Need to know where you are  
But one thing is for sure  
You're always in my heart_

Kagome took a deep breath. _Okay,_ she began again, _He's probably just finishing the battle off, and doesn't want to lead Naraku through to my time. So I'll just wait by the door of the Well-house, cause he'll be up in a few minutes. Yeah. That's right. He'll be here..._

She just kept telling herself that over and over again. Even when Sota found her sobbing by the edge of the well an hour later, and her mother and grandfather brought her into the house, she kept telling herself that Inuyasha would climb in through her window, perfectly alright, any minute now.

It was her only hope.

**ooOooOooOoo**

**Yeah, just so you know, most of my Inuyasha fics take place after the most recently released manga (at least, the most recently released as of April, 2007, when I started this thing), so try not to get confused about new attacks and things. I follow the manga, not the anime. But this really only applies to this chapter anyway, so don't sweat it.**

**And the word **_**naraku**_** translates literally to **_**abysmal hell**_**. So I thought this was a fitting end for him.**

****

Oooh! Almost forgot! Ahem...(serious voice) Disclaimer: Inuyasha and all associated characters are the copyrighted property of Rumiko Takahashi, and the song _Somewhere_ belongs to _Within Temptation_. And this applies to all further chapters of this story, so I won't be typing it over and over again. Kay? Cheers!

**Next up...**_**The Wish**_


	2. The Wish

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. I don't even own the computer I typed this on, that's how broke I am right now!**

_...The Wish..._

"So...what do we do with it?"

That was the big question. Miroku watched Inuyasha as he stared at the ruined Well. For the hundreth time in the past hour he poked at the spot on his hand where nothingness should be, and found solid flesh there instead. In spite of himself, he smiled. It was a strange thing, to think all your life that you would die young, and then find out that you wouldn't. Sango had been overjoyed, but the joy abruptly vanished when they realized the dillema that had been left with them.

Inuyasha still held the nearly completed Shikon Jewel in his hands as he stared at what remained of the Bone-Eater's Well...which no longer worked. He felt a sort of numbness inside of him as he absently fingered the Beads around his neck. He had a wish, he knew, but the last shard was needed, and he wasn't going to just take it. It was Kohaku's decision now.

When Sesshomaru and entourage left the battle scene--without even a snide remark to Inuyasha about how he couldn't possibly defeat Naraku on his own--Kohaku had stayed behind. Kaede and Shippo had also rejoined the party. Kohaku said he wanted to give up his Shikon shard. In penance for everything he'd done, he said. Sango remained silent the entire time the others argued about it. Shippo was just crying.

"Even if ye wished for the Well to open up again," said Kaede, "it wouldn't work. The wood of that Well is imbued with magical properties set down from before Midoriko's time. It's older than the Shikon no Tama, so a wish from the Jewel won't affect it."

_My father's blood is very strong in me_, thought the hanyou. _I might make it there by myself if I wait..._

"We could just wish for Lady Kagome to return here," suggested Miroku.

"We don't even know if that's what she wants," argued Kaede, "She has a family and a life in her time."

_While I have nothing left here_, he thought, _not without her._

"Will you guys stop talking as if it's been decided that we'll even _complete_ the Jewel?!" Sango finally cried. "Are you guys willing to sacrifice my brother for something we're not even sure will work?"

"It _has_ been decided," Kohaku said hotly, "_I_ decided to sacrifice myself, and I don't particularly care if it works or not!" Then his face softened. "Ane-ue, I know it hurts, but like it or not, I don't belong here any more than Lady Kikyo did." Inuyasha flinched at the sound of Kikyo's name, but Kohaku went on. "She died fighting for what was right, and so will I. It's my time to go, Sango, long past my time."

Sango shed silent tears as she hugged her brother, the last member of her broken family, goodbye. When they finally broke, she fell sobbing against Miroku, who held her close to remind her of his promise of a new family for her.

Kohaku walked over to Inuyasha and turned, exposing the back of his neck where the final shard of the Shikon no Tama was implanted. He heard clothes rustle and steeled himself for the worst as the hanyou stood and turned to face him. But instead of plucking out the shard and ending Kohaku's life, Inuyasha did what none of them expected: he put the rest of the Jewel into Kohaku.

**ooOooOooOoo**

Kohaku felt a strange tingling feeling as the fragments of the Jewel merged within his body. And inside the Jewel itself, he could hear voices. And he recognized one of them...

_Lady Kikyo? _he asked faintly.

_Yes, it's me, Kohaku, _she answered him. _I'm here with the great demon Midoriko fought for seven days and seven nights._

Kohaku was puzzled, to say the least. _But I thought Midoriko was the priestess inside the Jewel..._

_She was, and is, _Kikyo answered crypticlly. _Do you not see, child? I _am_ Midoriko, and always was. Who was the greatest priestess of her time, who was lusted after by a dispicable brigand, who then fought the evil hanyou created by his foul desires and lost her life? It was always me, though at the time I did not know it. _Kikyo's voice seemed to sigh._ And no matter what I do, the Shikon no Tama is always inevitable drawn back to my reincarnated soul._

Kohaku didn't know what to say. He could hear, as a sort of background noise, a low growling, like a predator waiting to strike.

_But you know exactly what you're supposed to do now_, she said quietly, _don't you Kohaku?_

He did know, but he didn't know that this was how he would die. He'd always just assumed that the shard would be taken from him, and that would be it. His role in his own death would be passive--simply volunteering to be killed, not actively deciding to end his life himself. It was an entirely different thing, and he wasn't sure if he could do it! And that growling was really distracting...

_Make the wish, Kohaku_, Kikyo pleaded with him. _Free the priestess and slay the demon!_

But he wanted so much to live!

_Make the wish..._

He wanted to grow up and live with Sango and Miroku and play with Kirara and get to know Rin a little better. Rin had been his light in the darkness, and reminded him that there was such a thing as a heart.

_Free the priestess... _Her voice was getting faint.

What did he owe them anyway! He had risked his life numerous times to help them out, and they just wanted him to die! All they cared about was the Shikon Jewel, and that stupid wish, and Kagome. His own sister cared more about Kagome than her own flesh and blood! Sure, Kikyo had died doing good for the world, but surely there were other ways he could help people than simply dying! After all, he was raised to slay demons, so that's what he would do with his long, long life: slay demons.

_Slay the demon... _He could barely hear her, that growling in the background was so loud.

In a flash, he remembered the village where he and Sango had grown up, and the cave where father had taught them the story of the Jewel's history. "_If the completed Shikon Jewel ever comes back to us,_" he always said, "_our only remaining duty is to make a selfless wish: a wish that will purify the Jewel, and free the priestess still battling the demon inside_."

And suddenly, the growling wasn't in the background anymore. He was _there_, at the final confrontation between Midoriko and the dragon-headed monster...or was it Kikyo and Naraku he saw battling before him? Their appearances kept shifting, as if they couldn't quite decide which one to be. And then Midoriko (or Kikyo) turned and _looked_ at him, really _looked_ at him...and smiled. And in that moment of distraction, the demon-of-demons lifted a tentacle and ran her through the heart, and time froze.

The Shikon no Tama popped out of their combined bodies and fell into Kohaku's hands.

And then he was back at where he started. Kneeling on the ground before the people who had given him so much...Inuyasha, who'd always believed he could be saved...Miroku, who protected his sister from all the horrible things he'd done...Sango, oh gods how he'd miss her, the only member of his family he hadn't brutally murdered. But she forgave him for that. She forgave him for everything...

_You know what to do, Kohaku._

He did know what to do.

"I wish..." he began in a voice choked with tears, "I wish that my sister and her friends would be reunited with Lady Kagome."

**ooOooOooOoo**

Contrary to popular belief, there is a limit to what the Shikon no Tama can do with a wish. An evil wish always has much more power, because of all the evil and malice behind the thoughts and minds of those casting the wish, giving it strength and purpose. A selfless wish has no purpose, no intent but that the wisher gives it, and then it's up the Jewel's own limited power to grant it.

This is what happened...

Kohaku's body disintegrated into dust, leaving the glowing Shikon no Tama floating in midair before the companions. It offered them a choice.

To the humans it said in an impassive voice, _Would you like to live to see your friend again? You would outlive your childrem, your grandchildren, and five more generations of grandchildren, but you would die when you saw her. Will you accept Kohaku's dying wish?_

Kaede shook her head. "Kohaku was a brave boy to make such a selfless wish, but I cannot accept. I've lived my lifespan, and have no desire to live any longer than I have to in this tortured world."

Miroku simply said, "I will do what my Lady Sango wishes. Kohaku was her brother, and I will stay by her side."

Sango was crying again by now. "Kohaku," she said, "I love you, but I can't do it. I'm human, and I want to live a human lifespan. And I don't want Kagome to see us die. She's suffered enough."

Shippo piped up. "I want to see Kagome again," he said through fresh tears, "No matter how long I have to live!"

The light of the Jewel "turned" to him, though how they could tell which side was the front, no one knew. _You are youkai_, it said in a surprisingly gentle voice, _so you will live to see her again if you are careful. You need nothing from me. _Then it "turned" to Inuyasha. _You, on the other hand, are hanyou. You _might _live, but you would be an old man by the time you saw your love again. Is that what you want?_

He thought for a moment. "I don't know," he said in a voice he fought to keep from wavering.

_"Inuyasha," _said a voice they all recognized. "Kikyo?" the hanyou whispered as she appeared, ethereal, out of the Jewel's swirling depths. "_Inuyasha_," she said with a small, sad smile, "_I know what you want, and I will grant your wish, because it is also mine. I wish for you to be happy with your life and your love, and for that love to give you what I could not. Be happy, Inuyasha, and farewell. Until we meet again_."

Both she and the Shikon no Tama vanished as if they were never there.

All there was left to do was wait.

_I'll find you somewhere  
I'll keep on trying until my dying day  
I just need to know whatever has happened  
The truth will free my soul_

**ooOooOooOoo**

**Boy, that Kohaku bit just poured out of me, I didn't even plan it! But, you know, I figured the only way to have a selfless wish **_**and**_** bring Inuyasha and Kagome back together was to have someone **_**else**_** make the wish, thereby making it selfless because it's for **_**them**_**, not the wisher. Aren't I smart. -grins- Do you think it'll take away from the Inu/Kag parts though...? REVIEW!!!**

**As for Kikyo, I think that was how she always felt, as soon as the initial rebirth-without-a-soul rage was gone. She knew his place was with Kagome, but being with only a fragmented soul, she was unable to figure it out for herself. I also like the Kikyo-as-Midoriko bit. The similarities were just too convincing!**


	3. The Past

**Disclaimer: Well, I own this new shirt I got. And the thousand dollar check I got for my graduation--O.o omfg!! But I still don't own Inuyasha.**

_...The Past..._

It had been three months, and he still wasn't back yet. Kagome had gone back to the Well every day since, despite the fact that the morning after the fight, it had crumbled into ashes. Still, she came, and watched, and left in tears. But life went on...

_Even if his didn't..._

NO! She would not allow herself to think such things! He was perfectly alive, just delayed...somehow. Anyway, she had to get to school, where there was no time to think of the Sengoku Jidai. After all, she'd been gone for nearly five months, missed a ton of homework, and bypassed exams altogether, so she needed to get to work! Or so said her impossibly practical side.

Regardless, it was something to do with the seemingly endless hours of the day. Hours that _should_ have been spent in the past...

_Not thinking about that!_

She walked on.

**ooOooOooOoo**

"You did _WHAT?!_"

Miroku took a deep breath, trying to gather his patience while simultaneously calming Koga's aura. Not an easy task.

The Ookami Clan had beat an early retreat when they saw Kagome's light, not wanting to get purified along with Naraku. But now they were back, and their chieftain was _not_ pleased with the recent turn of events. "Koga--" Miroku began...

Koga cut him off. "I lose my shards and _this_ is what you do with them?! Kagome is _gone?!_ Where is that mutt, I'll tear him apart!" He sniffed the air for a moment, then took off like a shot.

Even without the power of the Shikon shards, Koga was still the fastest thing on two legs.

Miroku looked at Ginta and Hakkaku. "Aren't you going to follow him?" he asked them wearily. He wasn't worried about Inuyasha, who was more than a match for the wolf. He was more worried that one of them would do something stupid..._what_, exactly, he didn't care to think about.

"No," said Ginta, "He has to be without us on this one." Hakkaku nodded. "This is something those two need to resolve on their own."

**ooOooOooOoo**

"Kagome! How have you been? Are you over that pnemonia?"

"And the carpal tunnel, how's that been?"

Eri, Yuka, and Ayumi all shreiked and took turns squeezing the life out of their sickly friend. With their help and Hojo's math notes, Kagome had squeaked by the entrance exams and was now walking with her friends to her first day of high school. The girls modeled their new uniforms for each other as they walked: it was the same basic pattern with the pleated skirt, sailor collar, and ribbon, but the skirt was slightly longer, the collar had two white stripes instead of one, and the main color was a pale blue-grey. The ribbon at the chest was black. Kagome thought she looked rather morose, but the girls insisted it was lovely on her. "It matches your eyes!" they said.

_It matches my mood, _she thought.

"Higurashi!" called an all-too-familiar voice.

_Oh gods, do I ever _not_ need this right now!_ Kagome put on her best fake smile and turned to face the deluded boy behind her. "Hi, Hojo," she said cheerfully. "How've you been?" _Why did I say that? It just prolongs the conversation!_

"Alright," he answered. "But I wish I could have seen you more over the summer. Did your grandfather give you the flowers I brought over?"

Behind her, Eri, Yuka, and Ayumi started giggling like--well, like teenage girls. Kagome resisted the urge to tell Hojo that the flower basket had ended up in the trash. She had hated those gaudy flowers. Instead, she said (through gritted teeth) "Yeah--they were really...nice."

"Well," Hojo finally said, oblivious to her annoyance, "since we're just starting high school, I thought we could celebrate, just you and me. We could go see this new movie that just came out. Are you interested in something set in the Feudal Era?"

Hojo had absolutely no idea of the knife he had just stabbed into Kagome's chest.

He did see that she began shaking like a leaf. "Kagome?" he asked, "Are you alright? Are you _really_ over your pnemonia?" Kagome's face was hidden, but she did shake her head slightly. Hojo instinctually gripped her by the shoulders, as she looked like she was about to keel over, but she shrank away from his touch.

"Do you want me to walk you home?" Hojo asked her. Kagome shook her head, more forcefully this time, and walked back toward her house. Her friends were left staring at her back, wondering if she would be alright.

But as soon as she was out of their line of sight, she let the tears flow.

**ooOoo**

In the Well-house, Kagome was wracked with dry sobs. She had cried herself out half an hour ago, but she still couldn't bring herself to leave her post. She had tried every miko trick Kaede taught her to make the Well work again. What was left of the Well, anyway. But it was all in vain. Kagome just sat at the bottom of a hole that was once her way into another world.

_Inuyasha, _she thought, _Where are you? How is everyone? Are you alright?_

Of course, there was no answer.

She could almost pretend that it was just another normal day...until Hojo brought up the Sengoku Jidai. She could almost pretend that she was here in the modern day of her own free will, and that she could cross through the Well at any time. She could almost pretend to care about school again, even though there were much more important things going on just beyond her reach.

Almost.

_Almost hope you're in heaven so no one can hurt your soul  
Living in agony cause I just do not know  
Where you are_

Maybe...maybe it was better if he really was... Because if he was in as much pain as she was in right now...she didn't want that for him. As horrible as that thought was, as much as she wanted to see him again, she truly did not want Inuyasha to suffer any more than he already had. She almost hoped he was beyond the reach of those who would hurt him.

Almost.

**ooOooOooOoo**

Inuyasha was sitting by the Well's remains when there came a sharp blow to the back of his head. "What the hell did you do with my woman?!" said an annoyingly familiar voice. He gave Koga a withering glance before saying, "I didn't do anything. In fact, I tried to prevent it at all costs. Think before you shoot your mouth off, fleabag."

"Think of what?" Koga shouted. "Think that you did all you could? Miroku told me what happened, and I still don't know the whole story. All I know is that Kagome is gone, and _you_ were supposed to be protecting her! If you really--"

"_You think I don't know that?!_" Inuyasha finally snapped, "You think I don't know that I was supposed to stay by her side? You think I don't know I was supposed to keep her safe? You think I don't know that _I'm_ the one who dropped her down the Well?" That last one was barely a whisper.

Koga stared at him for a moment, taking in everything about his posture, tone of voice, and scent, and was blown away by what he found. Not for the first time, he was reminded of the night Kikyo died. Kagome had been grief-ridden that she couldn't save the miko, and Koga had marvled at her sheer goodness and light. It was that night Koga decided that Inuyasha needed Kagome more than he did.

With a sigh, Koga sat down beside his hanyou friend. "You have no idea what it's been like for me for the past few days," Inuyasha said wearily.

"At least we know she's safe in her world," said Koga. The monk had told him about the magic Well, and where it led to, but it was pretty obvious that it didn't work anymore, not in the state it was in now.

The hanyou scoffed. "My one consolation." He paused, then said quietly, "I'm going to wait for her, Koga. That Well leads to a time five hundred years in the future, so if I just wait five hundred years, she'll be there."

Koga thought for a moment, about Inuyasha, the Well, and the Shikon no Tama, and added all the facts up on a lever deeper than instinct. Abruptly, he stood up. "You know where to find me," he said simply. Then he ran off to join his pack.

For the first time in a week, Inuyasha smiled.

_I'll find you somewhere  
I'll keep on trying until my dying day  
I just need to know whatever has happened  
The truth will free my soul_

**ooOooOooOoo**

**Yeah, both of them are strong, and they'll get on with their lives. For as long as they need to wait to find each other again.**

**Coming up...**_**The Search.**_


	4. The Search

**Disclaimer: Nope. Still don't own it. I keep waiting for ownership documents to just drop into my lap one day, but I'm slowly realizing that this is probably not likely.**

_...The Search..._

"I think the worst part is not knowing what happened to them. My mind comes up with all kinds of horrible endings, and it all just becomes too much."

Kagome had finally told her mother what had happened before the Well stopped working. Like a good mother of a teenage girl, Mrs. Higurashi did not pester her daughter for answers, but waited until she was ready. And like a good mother, she offered Kagome every consolation for her loss. After much discussion and many tears, Kagome's mother finally said, "If the worst part is not knowing, then why not just go to the library and _find out?_"

Kagome blinked. The answer hit her like a sack of bricks.

Without a word, she grabbed her coat and ran out the door.

**ooOoo**

The librarian was a sweet, helpful old lady with square-rimmed spectacles, and was more than happy to help Kagome with her "report on ancient legends." She had helped her find a few good books, and a couple of websites, as well. Kagome thanked her and went to work.

_Wherever you are, I won't stop searching  
Whatever it takes, I need to know_

After a scan for Inuyasha's name turned up nothing, Kagome figured the best place to start her search was the Shikon no Tama. She found many different articles on Midoriko, several on the various enemies they had run into (though they made no mention of Inuyasha), and one very interesting story about Sesshomaru, the hard-hearted taiyoukai who was softened by a little human girl who showed him some kindness. Finally she found something that might be money.

It was the story of Kikyo, and her time with the Shikon Jewel. It told about how she had fallen in love with a hanyou who origionally wanted to take the Jewel from her (though it did not specify the hanyou's name), how Naraku had tricked them into hating each other in order to taint and steal the Jewel for himself, and how Kikyo's last act had foiled his plans. Then it went on to say that Kikyo's reincarnation came to give the hanyou another chance at love, and how they went on many adventures together, fighting to destroy Naraku, who had origionally torn them apart.

'_...and through perseverance and the help of many friends along the way, they defeated Naraku, sending him to the pits of hell._' Kagome sighed. _At least I know Naraku's dead,_ she thought. Then she saw a little footnote at the bottom of the page.

'_Though this is debated by many scholars, it is also said that Kikyo's reincarnation mysteriously vanished on the night of Naraku's defeat. One version of the story says that the hanyou made a wish on the Shikon no Tama to find her again, and that to this day he is still out there, searching for his true love. Of course, this is all purely theoretical, but..._'

Kagome shut the book and ran home.

**ooOooOooOoo**

**Not one of my longer chapters, and neither is the next one, so I'm putting them both up today. This chapter is Kagome's waiting period, and the next one is Inuyasha's...titled **_**The Wait**_**, in a burst of creativity.**

**And who says there aren't people who study ancient myths and search for a tiny grain of truth in them? People make debates about Shakespear's stories all the time, so I figure, why not this?**


	5. The Wait

**Disclaimer: Last night I had a dream that I owned it, but twas all but a fleeting fantasy.**

_...The Wait..._

Sometimes days and weeks flew by. Other times the hours crawled by at a snail's pace. Inuyasha watched as Sango and Miroku married, had eleven children, grew old together, and finally died. He never saw Sesshomaru again, though Rin came on Ah-Un to visit him once, to tell him that Sesshomaru had formally adopted her. Koga led his pack well for over a century, but was mortally wounded in battle. Inuyasha and Shippo went to see him before he died.

"Well, mutt," he said, "it's been fun. Shippo, make sure he treats my woman right." Those were Koga's last words.

Shippo cried some more, and he and Inuyasha left to continue their wait for Kagome.

**ooOoo**

The human uprising came and went, and demons were driven into hiding. Inuyasha managed to lay low during this time, offering his services as a mercenary whenever he needed money, then purchasing a spell from a sorceress to keep his ears hidden from human view. Shippo practiced his kitsune illusion spells, and was soon able to conceal his tail and other demon features without help. Inuyasha taught him some fighting skills as he grew, and soon Shippo could hold his own in battle almost as well as the hanyou.

Throughout all of this, Inuyasha did not age a day, and people noticed this. Loathe as they were to leave the vicinity of the Well, the Inuyasha and Shippo were forced to keep moving around the countryside to keep their identities hidden. Tales of their deeds during the hunt for the Shikon shards faded into legend, legend into myth, and myth into bedtime fairytale. People forgot that youkai ever existed. Territories were eventually given new names, and villages grew into cities as entire forests were torn down. Technology quickly grew to achieve what only magic could do previously, and people forgot about that too.

And the years passed.

Inuyasha came to understand more and more of Kagome's world. Schools were set up all over the country, and Shippo was very excited on his first day there. But again, the fact that Shippo grew so much more slowly than the other children forced them to move every couple of years, and transfer to a new school under a different name. After a while, Inuyasha got curious and started looking at the things the kitsune was bringing home. It was in this manner that he taught himself to read, write, and all those other essentials of the modern world. For essential they were, and for the first time, he understood some of what Kagome went through in her double life.

Kagome... Every once in a while, Inuyasha was tempted to give up his vigil--just renounce the wish and die already. It was these times that he traveled however many miles it took back to the Goshinboku, where he had last seen her. He often stood there for hours on end, fingering his Subjugation Beads (which _still_ refused to come off his neck!) and thinking. With the wars ending, that was really all there was to do to pass the time: think.

"Hey kid," a man shouted behind him, "you gotta get off the construction site; we've been commissioned to build a Shinto shrine here." For a moment, Inuyasha just stared wide-eyed at the man. Then he grinned and left. For the first time, he realized how far he had come. He couldn't quit now, not when he was so close!

Besides...Kagome never quit on him.

**ooOooOooOoo**

**Sorry all you Sesshy fans, but this is an Inu/Kag fic. And there really wasn't much else I could do with Koga, so I ended him in a spirit I thought was appropriate. Hope you all approve.**

**Next up...**_**The Answer**_

**Don't worry. It's longer than this one.**


	6. The Answer

**Disclaimer: I own it! I own it! I own it! -blinks- Oh. You thought I meant Inuyasha? No, I own the new bird we just got. Sorry for the misunderstanding.**

_...The Answer..._

After that incident by the tree, Inuyasha tried to stay as far away from Kagome's future home as possible. He didn't quite know why, but he felt he would be tempted to contact Kagome before the time was right. Or maybe that was just the Jewel's wish talking, not wanting him to screw up the proper course of time. Either way, he resolved never to go within a mile of the place again.

At the mall one day, he was sitting in the food court and drinking a soda, checking his watch every so often. Shippo was in sixth grade by now, and school let out later than Inuyasha was used to picking him up. He was also looking for some 'help wanted' signs, as he was supporting the both of them with a minimum wage job and an army pension under a different name, so money was tight. And false identity papers were getting more and more expensive...

"Inuyasha?"

He froze, trying not to get his hopes up. But it was _definately_ a girl's voice behind him, and his sensitive ears picked up the same _swish_ Kagome's school skirt used to make. He turned around slowly.

But it wasn't her. Just some other girl in a school uniform. This girl had brown hair cropped to her ears, and her eyes were brown, not the blue-grey shade he remembered so well. Still, she was strangely familiar...

"D'you remember me?" she asked. "I'm Yuka, one of Kagome's friends."

Inuyasha stared at her, thinking rapidly. "This may sound strange," he finally said, fighting to keep control of his voice, "but what year is it?"

Yuka looked at him strangely, but he was beyond caring. "It's 1997," she said cautiously. "October 6th, if you'd like to know."

With the clatter of a falling chair, Inuyasha was gone, leaving poor Yuka struggling to remember exactly _why_ it was that Kagome liked this guy.

**ooOoo**

_How the hell could I lose track of time?! _the hanyou thought wildly as he ran. _It's been three frikkin months since the Well closed on this side! What the hell is wrong with me?!_ He dropped to all fours and ran across the roofs of buildings, through the treetops, all thoughts of Shippo and a job forgotten. His long wait was nearly over.

_I'll find you somewhere  
I'll keep on trying until my dying day_

He ran and ran to the now familiar place of her school building, where she aught to be at this time, but she wasn't there. Inuyasha started running again, this time for the local high school. If he had done his figuring right, Kagome had first come through the Well in 1995, and had been going back and forth through time for almost two years. And she had said she was in ninth grade, so two years was more than enough time to pass on to high school. He guiltily wondered if she'd had to repeat a year because of him.

But she wasn't at the high school building either. Finally it hit him: Yuka, who was in the same class as Kagome, was at the mall, so school was out for that class. He berated himself repeatedly for being such a dunce.

Inuyasha ran full speed as Kagome's house came into sight.

**ooOooOooOoo**

Automatically, the first place Kagome went was the Well-house. She sat at the entrance for nearly thirty minutes before heaving a sad sigh. _I was so sure he'd be here._ She sniffed. _But why though? Just because the story said he made a wish, it doesn't mean he survived long enough to make it come true. A half-demon would only have half a demon's lifespan, so he probably just didn't live long enough._ A single tear rolled down her cheek.

The grief she had tried so long to supress came loose like a torrential flood of emotion. Kagome turned and roughly pulled the doors to the Well-house open. Blinded by tears, she ran up to the house...

...and abruptly crashed into someone else. Someone running on the direction of the Well-house.

It was a teenage boy, seventeen or eighteen by the looks of him. He was wearing patched jeans, threadbare sneakers, and an old red sweater that looked none the worse for wear, with a mane silver hair that was way too long for this day in age. He looked scruffy, but clean, and showed no demonic features whatsoever. He could have been anyone she met on the street.

Except for the eyes. There was no mistaking those golden eyes.

Kagome reached up a trembling hand to where there _should_ have been soft white dog ears, very much aware of how stupid she would look if she was wrong. But she refused to hope, refused to believe in something that could just as easily be a grief-induced halucination. But even though her eyes told her nothing was there on top of this boy's head, her fingers came into contact with something triangular and velvety soft. She quickly drew her hand back, almost afraid.

"Kagome?" he whispered, breathless.

She couldn't trust herself to speak. Barely breathing, Kagome caressed him with her eyes, taking in every feature: his cocky stance, his messy hair, the punkish lilt of his voice. His talons were filed down to regular nails, but you could hardly go around with clawed hands in the modern world. That was probably the reason she couldn't see his ears, though how he accomplished that, she had no idea. His fangs were still there, but they could conceivably be put down to some teenage vampire fad, or even a medical disorder. If this was a halucination, it was a very good one. If only there were some way to prove it, beyond a doubt. Only then would she dare to losen the airtight rein she had on her emotions. Only then would she dare to hope.

_I just need to know whatever has happened  
The truth will free my soul_

Her eyes drifted to a lump under his shirt, just below the collarbone.

The word so foreign and yet so familiar, one so well used that it brought memories both wonderful and painful, jumped unbidden to her lips. "Osuwari," she said in a barely audible whisper.

He fell.

Face down.

In the dirt.

With a groan, Inuyasha pulled himself up. "Now _there's_ a pain I havn't felt in a while," he muttered. "Kagome, I thought you'd be happy to--" His voice cut off with a grunt as Kagome tackled him in a ferocious hug. "...see me." he finished awkwardly. But his arms tenatively encircled her waist, and he found himslef hugging her back just as hard. Though she made no sound, there was something wet on his shirt where her face was.

When they finally parted, Kagome sniffed and rubbed her eyes, and it was Inuyasha who had to keep his emotions in check. "You really waited five hundred years just to find me?" Kagome asked him quietly.

He blinked. "Did you really think I wouldn't?" he asked in response. Though his voice revealed nothing, Inuyasha's mind raced as he realized that this was a distinct possibility. She might not have cared that he'd waited for her, might not have even wanted him to--

Her arms were suddenly around his neck, pulling him very close to her. And before he'd even had a chance to process this new development, she put her lips onto his. And for a moment, the entire world revolved around her, consisted of only her...

But then, how was that different from the way he'd always felt?

"Not even for a second," she whispered as they parted. Guess that answered that question.

**ooOooOooOoo**

**Now, there are some who would say this would be a good place to end it, but I'm a very detail-oriented person, and can't just leave things up in the air like that. Whatever happened to Shippo, for instance?**

**Next chappie...**_**The End**_**. But it probably won't be the actual end. That's just for effect. In addition to details, I also have a flair for the theatrical.**

**Thank you so much to everyone who favorited my story! I feel so loved!!**


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